Albert Gonzales may be in Jail but it ain’t over for a long time.

Albert Gonzales was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Boston on Thursday for his part in the TJX, Office Max, and Dave & Buster’s breaches. He appeared in front of a different judge on Friday for sentencing on the Heartland, Hannaford and 7-Eleven thefts. He’ll be behind bars in federal prison for 20 years. And in case you hadn’t heard, he was on the Secret Service payroll as an informant for $75,000 a year while he was siphoning card data from TJX.

Gonzales is behind bars and his operation may be out of commission but make no mistake. E-commerce merchants will be feeling the burden of his deeds for several years to come. Gonzales and his Russian partners in crime were selling the stolen card data. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 170 million of them by conservative estimate. And only a precious few of those card numbers were cancelled. Until they reach their expiration dates, they are out there to be used against us.

Some of the recent surveys I’ve seen point to a slight decrease in overall credit card fraud in 2009. Others show an increase last year. I seriously doubt that the numbers in 2010 will be encouraging. With Gonzales in jail and the heat on the operation cooling down, the bad guys will be ready and willing to use them against E-commerce websites around the globe.

You are going to need to be more vigilant than ever in your fraud prevention efforts. I urge you to join Merchant911 and to register for my webinar Preventing E-Commerce Credit Card Fraud. If it helps you avoid even one fraudulent transaction, it will have paid for itself. Join us on Wednesday, March 31st at 11:00 AM Eastern time for this worthwhile event and get two free gifts for your efforts.

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